The present invention relates to a tone data making method, device and recording medium which can be suitably used in electronic musical instruments and the like, to provide for generation of a high-quality tone waveform with musical "articulation" and facilitate control of the tone waveform generation. It will be appreciated that the present invention has a wide variety of applications as a tone generating device and method for use in various tone or sound producing equipment, other than electronic musical instruments, such as game machines, personal computers and multimedia facilities.
It is important to note that the term "tone" appearing here and there in this specification is used in the broad sense of the term and encompasses all possible types of sound including human voices, various effect sounds and sounds occurring in the natural world, rather than being limited to musical sounds alone.
In the conventional tone generators based on the so-called waveform memory reading scheme (PCM or Pulse Code Modulation scheme), which are commonly used today in electronic musical instruments and the like, a single or plural cycles of waveform data corresponding to a predetermined timbre or tone color are prestored in memory, and a sustained tone waveform is generated by reading out the prestored waveform data at a rate corresponding to a desired pitch of each tone to be generated. In an alternative, data of an entire waveform, covering from the start to end of a tone to be generated, are prestored in memory, so that a single tone is generated by reading out the prestored waveform data at a rate corresponding to a desired pitch of the tone.
With such PCM tone generators, when a user or player desires to make some modification to the prestored waveform, rather than merely reading out the waveform exactly as prestored, for impartment of particular performance expression to a generated tone, it has been conventional to perform control on three major tonal factors: tone pitch; tone volume; and timbre or tone color. Specifically, for the tone pitch control, the waveform data readout rate is appropriately modulated, in accordance with an optionally selected pitch envelope, to thereby give a pitch modulation effect such as a vibrato, attack pitch or the like. For the tone volume control, a tone volume amplitude envelope based on a given envelope waveform is imparted to the read-out waveform data or the tone volume amplitude of the read-out waveform data is modulated cyclically, to impart a tremolo effect or the like. Further, for the tone color control, the read-out waveform data is subjected to a filtering process.
In addition, multi-track sequencers have been known, which are arranged to collectively sample a succession of tones actually performed live (i.e., a musical phrase) for recording on a single track so that individual musical phrase waveforms thus recorded on a plurality of different tracks are reproductively sounded in combination with automatic performance tones based on sequence performance data recorded separately from the musical phrase waveforms.
Furthermore, recording, in PCM data, the whole of tone waveform data of a music piece actually performed live and then simply reproducing the thus-recorded PCM data is a well-known music recording technique that is normally applied to production of CDs (Compact Disks).
Generally, in cases where an experienced player performs a musical phrase on a natural acoustic musical instrument, such as a piano, violin or saxophone, individual tones of the musical phrase tend to be performed with some musical "articulation" that, rather than being uniform throughout the phrase, would subtly differ between the individual tones, between inter-tone connections or between rising, sustained and falling phases of some of the tones, depending on a general image of the music piece or sensibility of the player, even though the musical phrase is performed on the same musical instrument. Presence of such "articulation" may give the listeners a truly good impression of the performed tones.
The above-mentioned technique of recording, as PCM waveform data, exactly the whole of tone waveform data of a music piece actually performed live by an experienced player, which is normally applied to compact disk production, would provide for realistic reproduction of "articulation" just as executed by the player, since it enables realistic and high-quality reproduction of the live performance. However, due to the fact that such a known recording technique only permits mere reproduction of a fixed music piece (i.e., a music piece just as originally recorded), it can not be used as an "interactive" tone making technique which allows users to freely create tones and edit the thus-created tones on an electronic musical instrument, multimedia facility or the like.
In contrast, the PCM tone generator technique known in the field of electronic musical instruments and the like allows users to create desired tones and impart some degree of performance expression to generated tones. However, the known PCM tone generator technique is not sufficient to achieve such "articulation" that is natural in terms of both tonal quality and performance expression. For example, according to the PCM tone generator technique of this type, there tends to be imposed a significant limitation on the quality of generated tones, because waveform data prestored in memory are just the result of merely sampling a single tone performed on a natural acoustic musical instrument. In particular, with the PCM tone generator technique, it is not possible to reproduce or express articulation or style of rendition that was employed during an actual performance to connect together predetermined tones. For example, in the case of a slur performance where a group of musical notes is performed smoothly together, the conventional electronic musical instruments and the like based on the PCM tone generator technique can not reproduce articulation or style of rendition providing sound quality comparable to that achieved by a live performance on a natural acoustic musical instrument, because it just relies on a simple approach of merely smoothly varying the rate of waveform data readout from the memory or controlling a tone volume envelope to be imparted to generated tones. Besides, even tones of a same pitch produced by a same musical instrument would in effect present different or non-uniform articulation in their attack phases, depending on a difference in musical phrases to which they belong or on their performance occasions even when they are within a same musical phrase; however, such a subtle difference in the articulation can not be expressed appropriately by the electronic musical instrument or the like using the known PCM tone generator technique.
Furthermore, tone generation control carried out in the conventional electronic musical instruments and the like for desired performance expression tends to be relatively monotonous and can never be said to be sufficient. For example, whereas it has been conventionally known to execute tone control in response to a performance touch on a key or the like, the conventional technique can only control tone volume variation characteristics and operating characteristics of the tone color filter used and can never freely control tonal characteristics separately for, e.g., each of the sounding phrases, from the rising to falling phases, of a tone. Further, for tone color control, the conventional technique can not afford sufficient tone color variations corresponding to various performance expression, because it just reads out, from memory, waveform data corresponding to a tone color selected prior to a performance and then, during generation of tones, variably controls the corresponding waveform data via a filter or otherwise in response to varying performance expression. Besides, due to the fact that the shape and other characteristics of envelope waveforms, employed in the conventional technique, for controlling the tone pitch, volume, etc. are each set and controlled while treating the whole of a continuous envelope (from the rise to fall thereof) as a single unit, it is not possible to freely perform operations on the individual phases or segments of the envelope, such as partial replacement (i.e., replacement of a desired segment) of the envelope.
Moreover, the above-mentioned multi-track sequencer technique can in no way effect partial editing (such as partial replacement or characteristic control) of a musical phrase waveform because it just records musical phrase waveform data of a live performance. Thus, this technique also can not be used as an interactive tone making technique which allows users to freely create tones on an electronic musical instrument, multimedia facility or the like.
Furthermore, although ordinary sounds occurring in the natural world as well as musical performance tones generally contain very delicate "articulation" varying over time, all the conventional techniques are unable to controllably reproduce the "articulation" in a skillful, appropriate manner.